Youssi Abderrahim (Rabat, Morroco), 25 March 2006

on Deserted in Western Sahara, by Saeed Taji Farouky

S. Farouky's paper on the Sahraoui Arab Republic is biased, unbalanced and smacks of simplistic or manicheist reporting of the under-developed reporting current during the Cold War era, to say the least.

At no time the disruptive role of the successive Algerian dictatorships during the last 30 years or so is mentioned, nor are their constant, blatant hegemonist policies questioned. Nor the fact that Algiers' successive dictators may have greatly varied in their often bloody styles of government, and that their dangerous, geopolitical goals never changed.

Without Algerian money – squandered among others on the grandiose ceremonies like the one that Mr. Farouky and the other 500 hundred journalist were invited to during the commemorative gathering of last February – the SADR, I say, would simply not exist, and the Maghreb would have made an extraordinary leap into modernity, and the North African entity would have gained more credibility as viable, cooperative socio-economic community.

Mr. Farouky's paper will most certainly com as a shock to any Moroccan that will read it.

Youssi Abderrahim, Professor